The Junction Point BttF Doctor Who Crossover
by AJMcFly
Summary: UPDATE: A chapter's been taken out and and Ch. 3 was replaced with a new one. So perhaps read the whole thing over to understand where everything stands! Thanks!Marty and Doc meet a humanoid time traveling alien called the Doctor and his companion.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Thursday

May 4, 2006

1:21 PM

The interior console room of the TARDIS shook violently. Rose stumbled backwards against the far wall as the Doctor grabbed onto the main terminal and held himself study.

"What's happening?" cried Rose Tyler.

The Doctor was perplexed. "Well, it's not good."

Rose moved to the Doctor's side, grasping desperately at the control panel to prevent herself from being thrown away again.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say we're being pulled into a black hole," the Doctor spoke after a moment.

"A black hole?" exclaimed Rose. "What's on the other side of a black hole?"

"Generally speaking, death," answered the Doctor calmly.

She looked at him with disturbed shock. "Can't you do something?"

"It wouldn't seem so," said the Doctor with annoyance. "The TARDIS is letting itself be pulled in."

"What?!"

"The good news is that there's no indication of any black holes within a thousand miles of this area on the TARDIS' radar. The bad news, of course, is that by the way it's acting, I'd say the TARDIS itself has completely malfunctioned," explained the Doctor.

"Well, what do we do?" demanded Rose.

"Hang on," said the Doctor.

The room rocked fervently, tossing the Doctor and Rose to the floor. The lights inside shut off. The Doctor stood slowly, holding his head.

"What happened?" asked Rose as she pulled herself to her feet.

The Doctor looked around. "We've lost power."

He began to examine the controls.

"Can you fix it?" asked Rose.

"Fix it. Fix it," the Doctor muttered. "What fix it? There's nothing to fix!"

"What do you mean?"

The Doctor opened the main control panel and began examining the interior wires with his sonic screwdriver. "Curious and curiouser," he said to himself. He slammed the panel shut. "Everything's working. Perfectly well. Better than ever." He leaned on the control panel, resting his head in his hands contemplatively.

"Then what's the problem?" prodded Rose.

"This bloody machine's the problem," he said, pounding on the control panel. "It's cut off its power source on its own. It's shut itself down."

"Maybe it's sleeping," suggested Rose.

"TARDISes don't sleep," said the Doctor, pacing back and forth. "It chose to shut itself down. For the time being. Something must have prompted it to. Whatever that thing we went through, that 'black hole' that the TARDIS went through, that's what caused it to shut down. But why? Why did it go through it and why did it shut down?"

"What do we do now, Doctor?" Rose came up behind him.

He turned to look at her. He released a heavy sigh. "I've lost connection with the TARDIS. It came here for a reason. So we might as well see where we are, eh? No sense in staying put here."

The Doctor led Rose to the doorway. They stepped out into darkness of late evening. Rose narrowed her eyes and gazed around.

"Looks like Earth," she said.

"Certainly does," acknowledged the Doctor. He gazed around. The Police Box that was the disguised TARDIS sat next to a large billboard. A large grassy meadow surrounded them on either side and they stood on a long stretch of highway. He went forward, Rose lightly chasing after him. He spotted a sign in the distance and hurried to it.

"What's it say?" asked Rose, peering over the Doctor's should.

The Doctor read the sign. "Well, let's go."

"Go where?" asked Rose.

"That sign says there's a town two miles away," said the Doctor. "Let's start walking."

Rose read the sign. "Hill Valley," she said aloud. "Wonder where that is?"

"Don't know. Sounds like a paradox though, doesn't it?" the Doctor shook his head. "Come on, Rose, let's go!"

She turned from the sign and hurried after the Doctor.


	2. Chapter I

Chapter I

"Quaint," said the Doctor, his hands in the pockets of his trench coat, as he gazed around the small quiet town.

Rose looked across the street at the local gas station. The car they were filling up was an old Ford Tudor Sedan. The men in jumpsuits quickly hurried to polish and wipe down the car as it was being filled with gas. "I think we're in the past."

"Looks to be America," said the Doctor as led Rose to a nearby café and crouched at a newspaper vending box. Using his sonic screwdriver, he opened the latch and took out a paper. He stood and looked it over. "November 12, 1955," he read. He scrunched his face with perturbation and handed the paper to Rose. "You're a bit underdressed."

She took the paper and looked down at what she was wearing: a pair of jean shorts and a lime t-shirt. "What's wrong with it?"

"You can see your knees," returned the Doctor. "Come on, there's a frock shop just down the street," he motioned with his head.

"What about you?"

He gave her a cheeky look. "Sorry, mate, but I think I'll stick with the trench coat if it's all the same to you."

She took his arm in hers and they went forward. "I think you'd look cute in a poodle skirt myself."

"That's enough of that," returned the Doctor.

They entered the frock shop and the Doctor waited while Rose perused her options. He looked sideways at the shop's owner. "Women. Take forever to pick out clothes in any era."

She gave him a shove as she walked past him, a purple poodle skirt with a white shirt and purple necktie in her arms. "Come on then."

The Doctor went the counter. "That will be seven dollars," said the man.

"That's right cheap, Doctor," said Rose.

"Inflation," returned the Doctor. "Here you are," he handed some blank papers to the man. "Should all be in order."

The man examined the papers, then put them in his cash register. "Have a good day then."

"You really ought to stop paying for things with psychic paper," Rose reprimanded as they left the shop.

"Wouldn't be safe to use modern American currency anyway, if I had any on me," replied the Doctor. "They'd think it a hoax, with all those funny colors. Better this way. You want to change in the café and I'll order us some lunch?"

Rose nodded and they returned to the building called "Lou's Café." They entered the diner and the Doctor sat at the counter.

"Excuse me," Rose said to the man at the counter. "Do you have a loo?"

"Yes, that's me," returned the man.

Rose hesitated. "Ah ... what's that?" She glanced at the Doctor. "He's a right one. You think he wants me to wee on him?"

"People were kinkier in these days," humored the Doctor.

She looked back to the man. "You're a loo?"

"Yes. Lou Carruthers. I own this diner," answered the man gruffly.

"Oh. That's not what I meant. I meant a loo. You know, a toilet? Someplace to change?" explained Rose.

"You ain't from around here, are ya'?" the man asked, eyeing her quizzically.

She hesitated.

"Uh, no. We're British," intervened the Doctor. "First time to the states."

Lou nodded with understanding. "That explains it. Ain't used to that type of talk in California. Had a fella' in here last week, you'd think he was from another planet. Is wearing life jackets in style over there?"

Rose glanced at the Doctor and shrugged. "Not that I know of."

Lou shook his head. "Kids. You do plan on paying for what you order, right?"

"Oh, yes," grinned the Doctor. "We're loaded." He winked at Rose.

"Right," the man nodded. "There's a restroom in the back by the checkout counter." He pointed with his thumb.

Rose followed his direction and went to the ladies' room to change.

"We'll have two clubs," said the Doctor. "You have those now, don't you? You're not going to carry out two billies, are you?"

Lou gave him an unamused look. "Two club sandwiches. That'll be $2.05."

The Doctor handed him three blank bills. "Keep the change, mate. For being such a good host!"

Rose returned just as Lou was putting the sandwiches down on the counter.

"What do you think?" she asked, twirling in a circle to model off her new outfit.

"It's you," returned the Doctor.

Smiling with satisfaction, Rose sat on the stool next to him and they began to eat.

"What are we going to do next?" Rose asked between bites.

"We might as well have a look around town," said the Doctor. "If the TARDIS reactivates its system I'll know it. Until then, there's no way for us to leave this place."

"Why would the TARDIS turn itself off like that?"

The Doctor's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he became lost in thought.

"Doctor?" Rose interrupted after a few moments of silence.

He shook his head. "Can't tell. Why this place, I don't know. It doesn't make sense. Everything was fixed anyway. We shouldn't be here."

"Doctor, what are you on about?"

He took the final bite of his sandwich. "Done?" he asked. She was only halfway through hers. He put down the napkin that had been on his plate. "Meet you outside when you're finished."

He stood and left the diner. Rose watched him go out the doors, uncertain.

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The Doctor stood at the edge of the walk, looking across at the great clock tower that stood in the middle of the town square, his back to Rose as she emerged from the café. She approached behind him. "You all right?"

"Just thinking."

"What about?"

He looked at her seriously. "Why the TARDIS brought us here. To this date. It wasn't an accident."

"Why? What's so important about this date?"

The Doctor looked at Rose carefully. He opened his mouth, then looked away. "You feel that?"

"Feel what?"

The Doctor ran across the street. Rose, confused, hurried after him. He went down the walk that was on Main Street, opposite the town's line of businesses, Rose following close behind.

Crouching behind a car, he pointed to a canvas-covered vehicle that sat on the side of the road between two street lampposts that currently had a wire suspended between them, reaching up to the top of the town's clock tower. "There! That vehicle's traversed the time barrier."

"What? You mean like time traveled?" Rose screwed her face at him curiously.

The Doctor nodded silently

"How can you tell?" asked Rose.

"It's like a sixth sense for Time Lords," replied the Doctor as they approached the vehicle.

"What? Like gaydar?"

"Something like that. This car is oozing with temporal residue," the Doctor said, bending over and throwing up a flap of the canvas to look at the car underneath. It was made of silver steel, and the Doctor reached forward and pulled open the passenger's side gull wing door.

"That's a DeLorean isn't it? With the funny doors," said Rose.

"Yep," said the Doctor, settling into the passenger's seat to look around. "If you were going to build a time machine into a car this would be a right good choice. Stainless steel can survive the punishment of time travel better than plastic. But from all the Gallifreyan records, no earth creature has ever been able to time travel without alien assistance. Earth technology's never been up to snuff. To get by on earth resources alone, you'd have to basically create a reactor that can run on an extreme power source available on earth, that can charge it - without causing the entire system to explode - and release it to create a temporal vortex. The Time Lords invented that concept, but we were only able to do it because of ability to commune with time and space. If a human were to do it, he'd need some sort of alien intervention. And besides that, these types of machines were disbanded and destroyed throughout the universe by the Time Lords and all knowledge of them completely erased from existence. So how one could get here on earth is beyond me. And the fact that it's here at this exact date is quite troubling."

"Why's that?" asked Rose.

"Damn!" muttered the Doctor. "You see that?" He motioned to a square device that was fixed between the two seats with his sonic screwdriver.

Rose peered into the car. "Yeah."

"That's a flux dispersal unit. I knew it," the Doctor huffed out.

"A flux dispersal unit? What's that?"

The Doctor slid out of the car. "It charges up a large amount of energy and releases it. Its construction is beyond the human mind. I couldn't even begin to describe it to you in a way you'd understand. Nobody from Earth could have made it. So the question is, what bloody alien came to this planet and built it, and why wasn't this machine deconstructed by the Time Lords with all the rest?"

"You're asking me?"

"You don't understand the peril here, Rose," said the Doctor, going around to the rear of the car. He flipped back the canvas and looked at the back, which was fitted with rear exhaust vents and other miscellaneous machinery. "Look at this! A nuclear reactor! A nuclear reactor, Rose! On a car. Bloody hell. That would be about the only power source on Earth capable of achieving time travel."

"That bad?"

"Worse than bad," said the Doctor with annoyance. "The Time Lords developed these machines when they first started experimenting with time travel. The power sources on Gallifrey were stronger, so they were less dangerous than this, but it was the same basic construction. This was before we learned how to grow the TARDIS. We didn't know what we were dealing with.

"Only a few machines were commissioned. A few trial runs were done. Just a few. But it was enough. Enough to anger the Time Gods."

"Time Gods?"

"Well, call them what you want. The Time Cosmos. The space-time continuum. Whatever it is, it wasn't happy. Because these types of machines didn't work with the temporal space. It worked against it. Violently. It literally rips a hole into time-space and causes massive damage. It throws all of time and space into a regular tizzy."

"Tizzy?"

"The tizziest tizzy. The few machines that were constructed were destroyed. Afterwards we were able to develop organic time travel technology."

"The TARDIS."

"Right. The TARDISes work with the time continuum. They peacefully slide in and out of time and space. Very communal. Very hippie-esque. After we learned how to grow the TARDISes, we were able to repair the damage we had done with the original time machines - the TARDIFs."

"TARDIFs?"

"Time And Relative Dimensions in Flux," explained the Doctor. "Once a hole is breached in the time barrier it begins to rip at the fabric of time. But with the TARDISes we were able to close every vortex that we had opened at the instance it was opened. Except one.

"One vortex still remains in time. One rip in the space-time continuum. It only exists for a split second, but it exists. It couldn't be reversed. Because when we tore open that first hole in the time continuum, it opened a nexus point. It's the breach between time and space, the access point to the temporal cosmos, and it can't be undone. Some call it the temporal junction point of the entire space-time continuum. November 12, 1955, 10:04 PM. That's the destination date of the first time machine that ever tore open a hole in the temporal fabric of the universe. That's where the vortex exists."

Rose scrunched her face, then looked up to the clock tower overhead. "That's less than one hour from now."

"Troubling, isn't it?" asked the Doctor. "In one hour that nexus point will exist for a split second. The good thing is that the Time Lords were able to bury it. It can't be accessed by anyone. Unless of course you have a time machine with a flux dispersal unit that can rip open a hole in the fabric of time. And if that hole were ripped open at exactly the same moment that the original vortex was opened, for one brief second access to the time cosmos will be available."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know exactly. But I imagine it can't be good. And it's all a bit too much to be a coincidence."

"So what do we do?"

The Doctor flipped back the canvas and went back to the passenger's side of the DeLorean vehicle. "We do what should have been done in the first place. We decommission this junker to insure the safety of the time continuum. We'll worry about whoever built it afterwards."

The Doctor leaned in and aimed his sonic screwdriver at the device between the two seats. "Let's see if we can't short it out."

"Excuse me," a gruff voice said.

The Doctor slowly sat up and looked out the car's doorway. A man stood before him. He was tall, mid-thirties, with soft blonde hair and a bruise obvious on the right side of his forehead. "Can I help you with something?" the man said, reaching down to take the Doctor's arm.

"You might at that," said the Doctor, standing up to face this new arrival. "Are you the owner of this vehicle?"

"Yes," the man said. "And I've got a very important experiment I'm conducting. So why don't you make trouble somewhere else?"

The man turned to close the gull wing door of the DeLorean.

"So this is your time machine?" asked the Doctor.

The man turned to look at him with surprise. "Time machine? How do you know about that? Who are you?"

"The Doctor," said the Doctor, extending his hand. "And you are?"

The man didn't move to shake the Doctor's hand, eyeing him suspiciously. "Emmett Brown. Doctor Emmett Brown."

"Doctor?" asked Rose with a cheeky smile.

The Doctor and Rose looked at each other knowingly.

"That figures," huffed the Doctor.


	3. Chapter II

Chapter II

The two doctors circled each other. Rose watched curiously from a few feet away.

"Two time traveling Doctors," said Rose to herself. "It's a bit unreal."

"So Doctor Brown. You built this time machine yourself I take it," continued the Doctor.

Brown didn't reply.

"I'm not sure who supplied you with the information to construct such a machine, but my race invented this technology. And as the last living Time Lord, that gives me the authority to decommission this project. So if you'll kindly step aside, 'Doctor,' so I can deactivate this flux dispersal unit and destroy this bloody abomination," the Doctor concluded, pounding on the hood of the car.

Brown eyed the Doctor carefully. "Nobody gave me instructions, 'Doctor.' I built this machine on my own."

"Oh, come now!" the Doctor laughed derisively. "A flux dispersal unit is beyond your imagination, no offense, Doctor Brown. It would take hundreds of years to develop it. To work out the equations. To construct a working model. That's the one thing Gallifreyans have. Time. Impossible for a human with a life span of less than 100 years to create unless the information was spoon-fed to you. Not even Albert Einstein could do it, because if he could have, he would have. And don't think he didn't try. And you may be a smart man, Doctor Brown, but you're no Albert Einstein either. So tell me how you got the information to construct this flux dispersal unit and build an honest-to-goodness time machine."

Brown glared at the Doctor. The Doctor eyed him back expectantly. Rose watched them both. She could feel the tension between them.

"I dreamed it," Doc finally spoke.

"Dreamed it?"

"I was hanging a clock in my bathroom. I slipped and hit my head and when I woke up, I had a vision of the Flux Capacitor."

"Flux Capacitor," repeated the Doctor with a snide grin. "Good name. Very logical. But visions just don't appear out of nowhere, especially visions that complicated. Equations just don't pop into someone's brain, Doctor Brown." He moved closer to him and whispered into his ear. "They have to be put there."

"What are you trying to insinuate?" asked Brown.

The Doctor began pacing, his hands clasped behind his back. "Someone wanted you to know how to build a time machine. Someone wanted you to construct it. To open the vortex. Tonight. At 10:04 PM the vortex to the heart of the space-time continuum can be opened. You can't use the time machine then. It will tear open a hole into the core of the time and space. It's too dangerous."

"I don't have any other choice," said Brown after a moment.

"Why? Why then?"

"You're a time traveler?"

"I am. Not only that, but an alien. I'm not here to try to cause trouble. I'm here to prevent it."

Brown massaged his temples, concerned. "Lightning will strike that clock tower at 10:04 tonight. My friend, he's trapped here. This isn't his time. I have to get him back to the future. And the time machine doesn't have any fuel. That bolt of lightning is the only power source we have that's capable of activating the time machine."

"Lightning?" The Doctor looked up to the sky. "There won't be a storm tonight. Not a rain cloud about."

"That's what the weatherman said," spoke Brown. "But you can't change the future."

"The future?"

Brown shuffled through the pockets of his coat. He found a sealed envelope, but replaced it without much thought. Then he pulled out a folded piece of blue paper and handed it to the Doctor.

The Doctor examined the note, then showed it to Rose. "What do you see?"

Rose looked over his shoulder at the paper. "Nothing. It's blank."

Brown's face twisted with shock.

"It's psychic paper," said the Doctor, handing the note back to Doc. "Someone's manipulating you, Doctor Brown. You're a pawn in someone's scheme."

"Who?" asked Rose.

"Whoever sent the vision of the 'Flux Capacitor' to Doctor Brown," said the Doctor. "And whoever it is wants that vortex to open tonight. Someone wants access to the very nucleus of the space-time continuum. Listen," he said, turning to Brown. "Whatever happens, you can't send that time machine through time tonight. We have a time machine. If you want your friend to get back to his time, we can take him there ourselves. But this machine must be destroyed."

Brown looked bewildered. "But we only have one chance. One chance to get him back."

"Yes. One chance. One chance to open that vortex and fracture the space-time continuum. It can't happen, mate. This time machine must be destroyed."

Brown worked his brain to process all the information he had gathered. He turned and placed his hands on the hood of the covered vehicle. "This will be my life's work. Thirty years of my future. My one great invention. The one thing I invent that actually works."

"You didn't invent it. Someone invented it for you. Don't let them exploit you any further. Doctor Brown, end this."

Thunder boomed above. Brown looked up. "The storm."

The Doctor lifted the face of his hand to the sky. "That's impossible. Someone is manipulating the weather. Creating a storm. This isn't natural at all."

"Who could do that?" asked Rose.

"I don't know," said the Doctor. "But we haven't much time. Doctor Brown?"

Brown looked to the Doctor, and then to Rose, and back to the Doctor, mulling his decision. "You can get my friend back to his own time?"

"Undoubtedly," replied the Doctor firmly.

"Then if what you say is true, I have no choice."

"Good man," said the Doctor, patting Doc on the back. He took out his sonic screwdriver. "I'm going to deactivate the flux dispersal unit."

Brown nodded soberly and the Doctor stepped towards the DeLorean time machine.

The car engine revved and the Doctor took a step back. The three looked to each other, confused. The headlights under the canvas flicked on and the engine revved again.

"Great Scott!" exclaimed Doc.

"The car started on its own," said Rose. "But that's impossible."

Suddenly the car accelerated backwards, the canvas surrounding it flipping off and wrapping itself around Brown's body. He threw it away from himself as the car peeled away down the street backwards. Brown stepped up to the Doctor.

"What is going on here?" he demanded.

"Something's controlling it," said the Doctor slowly. "Something that can control the weather, distribute psychic paper through time, send visions into people's heads, start and drive cars. Something that can manipulate time and space ..." He paused. "Something that's part of time and space! Something within the time-space continuum! Something that wants out."

"You mean it's trapped?" asked Rose.

"Why else go to all this trouble?" answered the Doctor. "All the power it has, but it can only manipulate what exists. It can't create something out of nothing, like a flux dispersal unit capable of ripping open a vortex at 10:04 PM. It had to send the message for someone else to create. It can't control human action, just manipulate it. If it was here and wanted to open up the vortex, it could build a time machine itself. But to go to all this trouble, it would mean it has no choice."

"What is _it_?" said Brown with annoyance. The Doctor had no answer.

"Doctor, it's nearly 10:00," said Rose, pointing to the clock tower.

A Packard came screeching to a stop at the edge of the street and a young teenager came out, wearing a jean jacket and red vest. He hurried toward the group. "Doc!"

"This your friend?" the Doctor asked Brown, motioning to the youth.

Brown nodded. The teenager looked at the Doctor and Rose questioningly. "Who the hell are you?"

"No time to explain," replied the Doctor. "We need to stop that time machine and destroy it."

"Destroy it?" said the teenager, incredulous. "Doc?"

"I think he's right, Marty," spoke Doc.

"But what about ... How will I get back?"

The bells on the clock tower chimed. The Doctor took Rose's hand. "Come on! We've got less than four minutes!"

"Doc, what the hell is going on?" Marty cried.

"No time for that now, just go!" Doc hurried Marty forward.

They ran up the street until they caught up with the car as it screeched to a halt.

"All right, freeze! This is the time police!" said the Doctor, aiming his sonic screwdriver at the car.

"Time police?" asked Rose. "We're not the time police."

"Well, it doesn't know that."

Marty and Doc came up behind them. "Jesus! Who's driving the DeLorean?"

"No one," answered Doc.

The car suddenly spun around so that its headlights splashed upon the group. The Doctor took a step forward and the car's engine revved warningly.

"Doctor!" exclaimed Rose.

"If I can get inside I can deactivate the Flux Capacitor," said the Doctor. He edged forward slowly. "Easy. Easy."

The car inched towards him. The Doctor paused, then burst forward towards the driver's side of the car. He reached for the handle but couldn't get the door opened as the car's wheels squealed and the DeLorean peeled out, just clipping him.

"Doctor!" Rose cried as the Doctor toppled to the ground. She went to him and kneeled down and put her arms around him. "You all right?"

"Still alive," said the Doctor, standing with her assistance. "No harm done." He looked ahead as the DeLorean accelerated down the street, his mind racing to figure out what to do. "We have to stop it. How does the time machine work exactly?" he asked, turning to Brown.

"The Flux Capacitor won't activate unless the speedometer reads eighty-eight miles per hour," answered the scientist. "Don't worry. The pole isn't hooked up, so the lightning can't be channeled into the Flux Capacitor."

Lightning flashed above. The Doctor shook his head with concern. "This is no natural storm. If you think that whatever's made it can't send a bolt of lightning directly into the flux dispersal unit, then you're mad. We've got to stop it, and we've got less than one minute. Come on!"

They hurried down the street.

"We'll never catch it!" cried Rose.

"This street's a dead end," returned Brown.

"And the storm is centralized overhead," added the Doctor. "It can't go far or it will be out of range of the lightning!"

They hurried down the street and found the car sitting there, near the end of the road, underneath the cable that was suspended, its tires spinning but the car braked to not go anywhere, smoke pouring out as the tires roared against he asphalt.

"Now's our chance!" called the Doctor. "It can't leave this area or it won't be able to get the lightning blast!"

The Doctor ran towards the car while Rose, Brown and Marty stood before it. The Doctor tried to open the car's door but found it locked. He went to the front of the car and opened the hood. "Where's the bloody engine?"

"It's in the back," said Brown. "I found that rather odd myself."

With a huff, the Doctor hurried to the back of the car and motioned his sonic screwdriver towards it. "How much time have we got, Rose?"

"It's 10:03," said Rose, looking up at the clock tower. Lightning flashed above.

"Come on, come on," the Doctor mumbled, trying to short out the car's engine. "Come on, cut the engine!"

The clock struck 10:04. A lightning bolt cracked from the sky and the four dove away just as the streak of light struck the dispersal unit mounted on the roof of the car. There was a great explosion of light and a whoosh of air. The Doctor, sprawled on the ground, moved his arm from his face and looked to where the car had been standing. All that remained were four lines of fire where the tires had been, and a tiny dot of light. His eyes went wide.

"Oh no," the Doctor mumbled as he rose to his feet.

Rose, Marty and Brown quickly hurried to his side.

"What's going on?" asked Brown.

"What is that?" asked Rose.

"It's a breach. A breach in space and time," said the Doctor. "It was opened for a brief moment, and now it's being held open. By something from within."

The light grew larger, as if a hole were being ripped open in the atmosphere.

"Great Scott," Doc mumbled, the light dazzling his eyes.

It shone against their skins, blindingly bright, making their figures glow. The Doctor aimed his screwdriver at the vortex that had opened. "Who's there? Identify yourself!"

"Just a ghost of the past, Doctor," said a voice from within. "And you thought I had gone to hell. Not quite. But now I'm back. Back from the dead."

A figure emerged from the vortex. He wore all dark clothes, and was average size. He had thick dark hair and a distinctive goatee.

"It can't be," said the Doctor with a gasp. "You're dead."

"Not dead, Doctor. Trapped. Trapped in time and space. Trapped beyond the walls of reality. Silently observing. But now I've returned. Returned to conquer the world."

The man approached the Doctor and looked him dead in the eye.

"My good Doctor. The Master is back."


	4. Chapter III

Chapter III

"You can't be alive," said the Doctor. "I watched you fall into the TARDIS' Eye of Harmony. You're dead."

"You of all people should know that the Eye doesn't kill. It brings life," spoke the Master, turning away from the Doctor. "The Eye powers the TARDIS. It's a link between this reality and the time continuum. Every TARDIS is grown from the Eye, and has its own link. In fact ..."

The Master looked around and his gaze fell on Rose. "I'm not the only one who's looked into the Eye, am I? This pretty miss has seen it, too. The power is incredible, isn't it, Bad Wolf?"

He smirked at her and she gave him a disdainful look. He turned back to the Doctor. "You've never been through the Eye, have you, Doctor? No one has. But I have. It sucks you in, like a vacuum. And suddenly you are one with time and space. There is no past, present, and future. There just is."

"Fascinating," said the Doctor without emotion. "So the Eye took you into the space-time continuum, spared your life, and you've been sitting around looking for a way out ever since. Why these folks? Why Doctor Brown? Why this Hill Valley?"

"I studied a million different options and constructed a million different results," explained the Master. "I had the whole universe on a platter to explore, but no way to affect it directly. I couldn't even use my powers of mind control from within my temporal prison. But I could affect laws of space. Manipulate space and time. Do you know how long I've been in that plane? Thousands of years, Doctor. Thousands of years, planning and maneuvering, waiting for the right moment. I analyzed every possibility, and determined that it was through Doctor Brown that I would have the most likely probability of success. It would have worked flawlessly, until you came along. I admit, I didn't expect to see you here at all, Doctor."

"The TARDIS brought me. I guess the time continuum didn't want to let you out."

"I don't blame it," said the Master with a scowl. "I should be dead. I survived by sheer will power. And then something amazing happened. I fell into the Eye, and I was reborn. Feel my chest. Go on, feel it."

The Doctor hesitated, then slowly put his hand to the Master's chest. "Feel that, Doctor?"

"A single heartbeat," spoke the Doctor with amazement.

"One heart. I've been reborn. All my regenerations undone. A re-regeneration, you might say. I communed with time and space and my body, my life, was restored. I'm back, Doctor. Back from the dead."

The Doctor took a step back and aimed his screwdriver at the Master. "Then I might have to send you back again."

"Put that silly screwdriver away. It won't hurt anyone. Besides, you can't stop me. I've not only been reborn, Doctor, I've been infused."

"Infused?"

"Infused with the power of time and space. The power of the Eye inside of me. If our race was known as the Time Lords, then surely I am a Time God."

"The power of time and space," said the Doctor deliberately. "That's how you were able to manipulate the weather. And control the car."

"Simple tasks for a Time God. Now that I'm free of my temporal prison, nothing can stop me, Doctor. Nothing. Not even you."

The Doctor puckered his face and raised his eyebrows. "Well, I'm certainly going to make a good go of it."

"No, you aren't." The Master snapped his fingers and a vortex opened behind the Doctor, blackness oozing from it.

The Doctor looked behind him. "What is that? A black hole?"

"Far worse than that. I could kill you, but then you'd just regenerate. You've still got a few more of those in you, I see. And quite frankly, I'm tired of dealing with you. So I'm going to send you the one place you can't return from."

"The Eye?"

"Of course not. Nobody ever enters the Eye again. Only I can have that power. You're going somewhere much worse. Some call it purgatory, others Hell. But I think we Time Lords referred to it as the Void."

"The Void," repeated the Doctor quietly.

"The gap between time-space and reality. You're going to enter the world of nothing, Doctor. And there is no escape. Not without the TARDIS, and you can't access that from hell, can you? And besides that, it doesn't seem to be working, does it?" The Doctor looked at him quizzically. "I had nothing to do with it. It shut itself down, and I imagine it would require quite a shock to restart it. But too bad the Doctor won't be around to activate it. But it's nothing to me now. I no longer need a TARDIS to travel through time. I am time.

"But enough talk, Doctor. It's time for you to go. I've finally won. I've finally conquered the great Doctor." He grabbed him by his jacket collar. "Goodbye, Doctor."

The Master tossed the Doctor backwards into the vortex, the blackness swallowing him up, and the hole closing behind him.

"No!" screamed Rose, rushing forward.

The Master grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him. "He's gone now. It's over. But I think I'll let you live, Rose Tyler. You've seen into the Eye. You could be useful to me at a later date. I'll need a vessel. Doctor Brown," he said, turning to look at Brown. "Thank you for your help. I couldn't have done it without you."

He stepped away from the three. "It's been a pleasure." And he faded from sight like an apparition.

"He's gone," spoke Rose finally. "The Doctor's gone."

They stood silently for some moments. Then it began to rain, hard.

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?" asked the teenager. "Who the hell are you? Who's the Doctor?"

"Come on," said Brown, leading them forward. "We'll figure it all out back at my place. We can fill each other in on everything."

"But he's gone," said Rose quietly. "We have to get him back."

"There's nothing we can do right now," replied Brown. "He's gone and so is the time machine. Let's just try to figure everything out, all right?"

Rose nodded and Brown led them to his Packard. They climbed in and he drove them forward to his house. As they went they each glossed over all that had happened to them and how they had gotten to this point.

Brown, who Rose came to learn was often referred to as Doc, led them up his driveway to his great mansion. Rose admired it as they approached it. She had always wanted a great big house like that. He led them to his stately living room and had them sit down while he got them some towels. Rose sat in a corner seat, Marty sitting on the edge of the coffee table, poking at the fireplace with a poker. Doc entered and handed them the towels to dry off with.

Marty sighed. "I can't believe this. I mean, I thought time travel was weird enough. But this Doctor guy, he's an alien?"

"Yeah," said Rose.

"And he's a time traveler?"

"Yeah," she said again. "I guess his people invented it or something."

"But his people are all gone, right? You said his planet was destroyed."

"That's right. During some Time War or something. The Doctor doesn't like to talk too much about it."

"And you're a time traveler too? From the future?"

"Yep. The early 21st century. You're from 1985?"

Marty nodded.

"God, I wasn't even born yet," said Rose.

"But you're older than me," said Marty.

"Freaky, isn't it?" she asked, drying her hair with the towel and pushing it back over the top of her head.

"Heavy," Marty mumbled.

"Now we know how we all got here at least," said the Doc, walking between them. "Now the question is: what's next? You don't know anything about that man? That Master?"

Rose shook her head. "Never seen him before. The Doctor never mentioned him, but I guess they have a history or something."

"He said something about the Void," said Doc.

"Yeah. He said it was a gap between space-time and reality I think," replied Rose. "Whatever that means. That's where he sent the Doctor."

"What about your time machine?" asked Marty. "What's it called?"

"The TARDIS," answered Rose. "Only the Doctor can operate it, though. It's, like, bonded to him or something. I can't work it."

"And the DeLorean is stuck in the future," sighed Marty.

"Well, maybe we'll get it back," suggested Rose. "I mean, you said the Doc's older self sent you, right?" she asked Marty. "So when he sees the time machine's come back and you're not there, maybe he'll come back here for us."

Marty shook his head. "No."

"What do you mean 'no?'" she asked. "He wouldn't just leave you trapped here, right? You said he's got the plutonium or whatever he needs to work it."

Marty looked sideways at Doc who stood before the fireplace. He stood. "Doc, I have to tell you something."

Doc held his hand out to him. "Marty ..."

"Doc, we need the time machine."

Doc scrunched his face. "It's not as if I haven't already gathered more information than I should have. I already have my suspicions. But still. If I know any specifics it could change my behavior. Things won't happen as they should have and we could cause a paradox. It's too risky."

"What's going on?" Rose approached them. "What's the matter?"

Doc looked to her. "I die in the future."

Marty looked at him dumbfounded.

"That much was obvious," Doc looked at him, then walked past the two. "But how it happens and under what circumstances is not clear. And if I knew that, it could affect the way I handle everything."

"Oh, and like knowing that you're going to build the time machine isn't going to affect things?" demanded Rose. "It's not as if you know so little you can't mess things up, right?" She turned to Marty. "What happens?"

Doc gave Marty a stern look.

Rose scrunched her face. "I mean, is he alive to send the time machine back to us?"

Marty shook his head. Doc's face softened slightly. Marty went to Doc and reached into his overcoat pocket, pulling out a sealed envelope for him to see.

"What's this?" asked Doc, taking and reading what was written on it. "'Do not open until 1985?' You were going to leave me with this information?"

"I had to, Doc!" retorted Marty. "I couldn't ... I couldn't let that happen to you. Not if I could help it. I mean ... You're my best friend."

Doc's breathed in and nodded slightly with acceptance.

"Read it," said Rose, stepping up to them.

Doc hesitated.

"Oh, come on, you can't mess things up more than you already have," she urged. "We need your time machine, you know. It's all we've got."

Doc relented. He pulled out the flap and removed the folded paper, reading what was written to himself. "Shot by terrorists," he said as he moved the paper from his eyes. "The Libyan nationalists I mention in the video?" he asked Marty.

The teenager nodded. Doc stepped up to him and patted him on the shoulder. "Thanks for the warning, kid."

Marty smiled slightly, patting Doc on the back.

"So now that you know, you can prevent it, right?" asked Rose.

Doc thought about it. "I don't know. What if me getting shot prompted Marty to jump in the time machine? It might alter his decision if I'm still alive."

Rose contemplated that for a moment. "Guess you could always play dead."

"If I get shot by a bunch of maniacs I don't think I'll be able to play anything," returned Doc.

"I mean, you could put on a bullet proof vest," she suggested. "As long as you weren't shot in the head."

Doc looked to Marty for confirmation.

"Ah, no. Just the chest and stomach I think," said Marty. "But it happened so fast. All I really remember seeing is the machine gun and you dropping and not moving."

Doc nodded. "Then maybe we can pull it off," he said. "If I wear the vest and survive, I can play dead long enough for you to go to the past, and then my older self can go to town and find the time machine."

"But what if ... what if they shoot in you in the head afterwards or something?" Marty asked. "You know, for good measure."

Doc swallowed. "That's a risk we'll have to take to preserve future history."

"And if you survive, then what?" asked Rose. "Have you future self bring the car back here?"

Doc considered it, then shook his head. "It's two dangerous for two of version of myself to be here. The time machine would have to be sent back on its own."

"Okay," said Marty after a moment. "So ... what? I mean, is everything changed now? I mean, like now that you've decided to do that, has the future changed?"

Rose looked to Doc, not sure of the answer herself.

Doc ruminated over it. "The Ripple Effect indicates that anything that happens in the past has a direct influence on the future. Every decision ripples ahead instantly to change tomorrow. It's cause and effect. But the time continuum obviously sets up solid dates in which certain actions can be modified. Sort of junction points. For instance, the junction point for Marty's parents getting married and having children was their kissing at that dance. The future wasn't set then, but rather in a state of flux until that moment passed and Marty's parents either did or didn't kiss, which I'm presuming they did." He cocked his eyebrow at Marty, who nodded his affirmation.

"The junction point passed and the future was then set," Doc said, going to Marty and indicating for him to hand him his wallet. Marty obeyed and Doc took out a picture of Marty and his two siblings and viewed it. "That's why the picture's solid. Until the junction point has occurred, the picture would be in a state of flux. Meaning that the future created by an action caused a temporal shift that was undetermined at that moment in time. So in order for my future self to be saved, it would require an action that determines it, the junction point for that particular alteration to the space-time continuum."

"So what would that be?" asked Rose.

Doc shrugged. "The time barrier seems to indicate certain actions which are symbolic. Marty's parents kissing at that dance was a symbolic representation of their falling in love. They had to fall in love at that exact moment for Marty and his siblings to be conceived in the same exact way as they were in the previous timeline. What we need, then, is a symbolic action to indicate my determination to the time continuum to save myself and send the time machine back to us in order for the timeline to become fixed rather than dynamic and still changing."

Rose looked at him skeptically. Still, she was used to such longwinded ruminations from the Doctor. The two seemed very alike in many ways, almost as if they were destined to meet.

"So what sort of symbolic thing can we do?" inquired Rose.

Doc snapped his fingers. "Here!" he said, going to a table off to the side and taking out a sheet of paper and pen. "I'll write myself a note." He began to scribble across the paper. "This will tell me all of my actions I plan to do in 30 years. This way I'll have my intentions written in black and white for myself to read and follow in 1985, and I'll make a mental determination to follow these words exactly." He folded the paper and placed it in the envelope Marty had taken from his coat, crumbling the paper Marty had written on. "Personal determination in my mind, symbolized by it being written down and placed in this envelope," he said. "And for good measure I'll put it in my safe in the garage," the went toward the side door and ran across the lawn through the rain, the envelope protected under the flap of his coat. Marty and Rose followed him.

As they entered the garage where the Packard had been parked, they saw Doc go to a safe in a corner of the room, fiddle with the combination and open the door. He dropped the letter inside and slammed the safe shut.

"There!" he said. "That's where I keep my most important documents. All of my diagrams for inventions, including the one for the Flux Capacitor. Safe and sound and the place where I store all my most sacred thoughts and creations. It's perfect!"

"All right. Now what?" asked Rose.

Doc took a pocket watch out and looked at it. "We wait ten more minutes and then go to town."

"Why?" asked Marty.

"Because. It's ten till twelve," said Doc. "I indicated that I would wear a bullet proof vest and play dead long enough for you to escape to the past. Then, when I was sure it was safe, I would go to the town square and get the time machine and send it back to the exact date of November 13, 1955 12:01 AM. If writing this letter and putting it in my safe is the junction point for that action, then when we go to the town square at that time we should find the time machine waiting for us."

"And then what?" asked Marty. "We have the DeLorean, but how exactly does that help us?"

Rose answered. "That Master bloke said he sent the Doctor into some place in space and time. If we're going to get him out, we'll need a working time machine."

"Yeah, but we still don't know where he is," objected Marty.

The three stood silent, not sure what to say.

"Maybe we could, I don't know, maybe we could just go back and stop this all from happening," suggested Marty.

"Out of the question," said Doc firmly. "That would cause a major time paradox."

"Yeah, he's right," nodded Rose. "Don't want that happening again."

Doc eyed her with surprise. "Great Scott! You've caused a paradox?" he asked.

"Once," she admitted. "Don't want those creatures returning to try to clean up the mess. That will just make things worse."

"Creatures?" asked Doc. "I would have assumed that the whole universe would simply explode."

"Guess not," she shrugged. "Anyway, causing a paradox will just make things worse."

"Then how do we find the Doctor?" asked Marty. "If we don't know where he is we can't save him. I think he might be trapped."

Rose's face twisted with anguish. "I've got to save him."

"But there's no way to get to the Void."

"There might be a way," spoke Doc. "This Void, it's a gap between space and time."

"That's what the Master said I think," said Rose.

"The Flux Capacitor is designed to traverse space and time," said Doc, thinking to himself. "Maybe I can reconfigure it."

"Do you think you can access the Void then?" Rose said, going up to him.

Doc didn't answer for a moment. "Possibly." He turned to look at Rose. "The Flux Capacitor doesn't just travel through time. I saw more than that with my vision. It can access alternate realities."

"Alternate realities?" asked Marty.

"Like different futures?" added Rose.

Doc didn't answer. "The timeline obviously can be changed and altered. Nothing is static. By creating alternate realities, old realities are left in the wake, possibly sectioned off. If the time machine can access new realities, I might be able to reconstruct it to access former ones."

"And then what?" asked Rose.

"If what the Master said is true, then by opening a vortex to an alternate reality, we'll also be opening a vortex to the Void, which is a gap between realities. If I can focus in on that space in between, and open the vortex with the Flux Capacitor, I should be able to open a door to the Void. But I'm not sure if the time machine has enough power to do that. It's designed to release a quick burst of energy, just enough to transport the vehicle itself. It's not meant to open such an expansive breach in the time-continuum for more than an instant."

"But we have to try. If we don't, the Doctor will be trapped forever," said Rose. "And the Master will have everything."

Doc slowly nodded. He turned around and looked to Marty, and then to Rose. "All right. Let's get to work."


End file.
